Micro Stakes Online NL Poker Forums

Hey guys, was a little bored while eating my ichiban noodle supper and turned on the boob tube....Pokerstars BIG game was on....sweet havent watched that for a while, I thought to myself....so I turned it on....As it was playing I was thinking of hand ranges and why people where doing certain things...mostly the loose cannon guy...one hand reminded of a hand I played today on pokerstars...and mistakes people were making a lot in common situations and I was taking advantage of...So i decided to write this to maybe help some people at the micros...

CAUTION:Some things might not be spot on in here like maths as I suck at math but seem to find you dont need to be a pro at it for poker...

Common Blunder #1 the pocket pair, air stabber

I see this a ton, even from regs and have no idea what there doing, except maybe fold a small part of my range and to protect I guess but they dont follow it through that much, and the line I take has been paying off a lot instead of double barrelling for thin value, and it balances me also a bit and opens me up to take better lines..Its with the middle parts of your range where its getting thin for value.

These situations come on flops like Kxx Qxx Jxx, dryish flops where ranges are wide and villain can be floating light and has position.

Ex. http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1808762 hand converter wasnt working for posts..it doesnt show but villain has 33

So here I decide to check turn to see what how villain is going to react...plus he has a lot of better tens in his range and can be floating light here on this flop...dbl barrelling gets him to fold his overcards and some PPs and by dbling I kind of iso myself vs the top of his range and makes the river hard to play unless I spike..but by checking keeps his range wide and induces bluffs...This hand is especially good cause his bluffs have tainted outs and I can still suck out on his better tens...Anyways after seing this hand you can easily take the c-bet c/c line with medium hands or a c-bet c/r turn line when we pick up pot equity on the turn or with air and they decide to stab with floated air or medium strength hands you can sprout some really cool lines form this...taking this line Ive found pretty much relies on board textures and villain being a reggish guy who likes to float...

I usually will call turn and river when I first decide to try this out and get a read on villain if he has the balls to actually stab river also with air etc.. and adjsut...also a lot of people will only stab turn and check river when weak and bet turn and river when strong, you just need to find out and adjust.

Common blunder #2 the 3 bettor for no reasonr..OOP

I also see this from regs a ton...They are 3 betting for no reason really, they are just 3 betting just because its a common occurence now a days..you should be 3 betting with a range that makes sense in certain situations...Like if someone is calling 3 bets to much you should 3 bet them for value and fire every flop there range is wide and re-evalute...you can add in bluffs in there and c-bet every flop to, but your range might be a little wide and we start 3 betting a little to much and this might get villain to adjust also, and with junk that cant really get value from worse and we are relying on just a pure bluff with little equity..Value hands like AQ still have SD value and still have lots of equity vs a flatting range on the flop a lot and domiante a lot of there calling range...

Ive seen regs 3 bet a BTN opener who folds to 3 bets 22% of the time and have junk hands, they are just 3 betting for the sake of its a regular occurence I guess...and BTN can be opening wide, we need to focus more on how he plays post-flop and if he folds often..If hes opening wide and folds a ton to 3 bets,3 bet junk lots, just keep it balanced to a part that villain isnt going to adjust,

3 bet for value vs someone who calls a ton a range of 99+ AJo+ KQo+ even lighter sometimes...

3 bet junk vs someone who folds alot K4s A4s Q3s, and has a wide stealing range 30%+ is a added bonus... I pick these hands cause they usually have 30% equity vs a tight 3 bet calling range a lot and can flop a TP and even value bet one street or pick up a nice nuttish FD and cooler people sometimes...Just be able to fold TPs if you are shown heat.

You need to balance your nuts to air:ratio also dont make the mistake of letting villain adjust..

Comon blunder #3; The non balanced 3 bettor

I also see this a ton you can find this out with a SD hand a lot on villain of what his calling range is...if hes calling pre-flop with JJ you know his 3 bet range is prob QQ+ AK thats 2.5% of hands...dont be worried either people are very static with there 3 bet ranges at micros I find.. . If villain has a 8% 3 bet hes pretty much only betting 33% of his hands for value 2.5%into 8% is 33%..., 12% is like 20% for value...thats a small nuts and big air ratio...say we raise BTN with Axs villain 3 bets us..he has 8% 3 bet he has 27combos of value ( cause of blockers) which is even less then his normal 2.5% of value, prob about 2% is 27combos...so he has a 25% value 75% air ratio.. 1:3 ratio...so if hes gonna fold 75% of the time we can 4 bet 2.5x and show a profit...him having 12% 3 bet is even better...remember though dont let him or make him adjust, so dont do it to much do it enought to profit from it...say villain 3 bets us three times in last 4 orbits..we raise 3bbs he 3 bets us to 10bbs...So we lose 9bbs in those three times...he 4 bets us a 4th time now, his frequency is high and we think hes 4 bet bluffing now, weve seen him flat TT or AQo pre-flop also, so we know he prob 3 bets JJ+ AK and airs,,we opened A4s so we 4 bet 2.5x and he folds weve actually won his 10bbs thats a extra 1bb plus blinds so we actually profit,,,I would prob do it 1 outta 4 times as a 4 bet..also if he 3 bets 3x we still profit.vs villain...Remember though we need reads or know hes doing it..Ill usually start doing this to a 8%+ 3 bettor

ex. villain had 3 bet me 3 times in a 15 min session already.and had 13% 3 bet

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/1808785

Think villain has to fold 67% of the time here to show a profit I beleive..which with his nuts/air ratio he is doing.

Common blunder #4 people 3bet/4 betting AK pre-flop like its the god nutz..

People if you like lots of variance 3bet 4 bet AKo away...You should have a reason to be 3 betting it and calling off 4 bet jams...Ya sometimes we get odds to call it off, but it makes great variance in our games and your BR will be up and down a ton...Ive taken 3 betting AKo outta of my game a lot as a default unless I have a reason for it and it has super reduce my variance a ton....sometimes you can have easily a 4 BI downswing session just from this, also a 4 BI upswing but its just not for me and I run bad ..Maybe its not really a blunder its just something that has helped my BR move up steadily more evenly... then up and down like the mountains....

Common blunder #5 People playing there hand strength and not a range..

People play there hand to much, they catergorize it on a hand chart...like saying I have two pair well we can easily have two pair but villain can easily have trips+...play vs villains range..categorize your hand into a bluff catcher or value hand....and go from there..categorizing your hand on a chart is gonna be making you make lots of mistakes...and calling off in places where you shouldnt be, like where you categorize your hand into TP and call a river c/r..well our hand was value so we bet river and villain c/r and its now a bluff catcher...if hes never bluffing then we cant bluff catch anything we should fold..if we categorize our hand as TP we think its good on a SD hand chart and call off more often..This is prob one of the hardest habits Ive had to break...Thanks to one of my coaches that pointed this out to me.I also see this a ton on the forums.


Common blunder #5 Have a plan and stick to it no matter what.

Have a plan when playing a hand vs certain player types...know what card scare them, there range or what there tendencies are and plan a +EV line around them...It usually starts out as a street by street plan, but a full plan is usually the best as you stick to your decision and dont let certain cards affect your actions on a street by street plan...One way of practicing this is running certain situations over and over in your head or writing them down or doing it with a deck of cards vs a imaginary player.I myself am still working on this part, but its getting way better and am able to plan a lot more in certain situations fully instead of street by street...

Well thats enough writing for me...There is plenty more things I could point out, like relying on stats to much, playing at higher limits then you really should and thinking people are bluffing to much, and multitabling...but that might be a diff post...

Its kinda late so I can't give you anything of substance but really WELL DONE!

I think people have way more simple leaks than that

eg opening weak hands oop eg KJo UTG with loose guys IP

calling crappy reverse implied odds hands like ajo vs a tight UTG open

getting 3betting totally wrong, i.e. with the wrong hands, vs the wrong opponent at the wrong time

playing too much oop and not enough IP

not value betting thinly enough

calling too much

awesome post bud.seems pretty spot on.im working on fixing a couple of those "blunders" myself.

I think people have way more simple leaks than that

eg opening weak hands oop eg KJo UTG with loose guys IP

calling crappy reverse implied odds hands like ajo vs a tight UTG open

getting 3betting totally wrong, i.e. with the wrong hands, vs the wrong opponent at the wrong time

playing too much oop and not enough IP

not value betting thinly enough

calling too much

yup of course, the ones i mentioned are the ones I just take advantage of the most, soem of the ones you mentioned pretty much related to the ones I said...calling to much=playing your hand strength...., 3 betting totally wrong= the non balanced 3 bettor....there is lots I didnt mention... I like the eg opening weak hands oop eg KJo UTG with loose guys IP,calling crappy reverse implied odds hands like ajo vs a tight UTG open....def good ones, where people just have static ranges or play to many tables and just auto open these hands..

Yeah wasn't criticising your ones just trying to add to an good thread idea

I think people have way more simple leaks than that

eg opening weak hands oop eg KJo UTG with loose guys IP

calling crappy reverse implied odds hands like ajo vs a tight UTG open

getting 3betting totally wrong, i.e. with the wrong hands, vs the wrong opponent at the wrong time

playing too much oop and not enough IP

not value betting thinly enough

calling too much

Yeah I think a lot of these are true, especially in regards to constructing 3b ranges.

3 betting totally wrong= the non balanced 3 bettor.

I would argue that our 3betting ranges should rarely be balanced at the micros.

I would argue that our 3betting ranges should rarely be balanced at the micros.

think that statement is true on the bigger sites like Pstars but Merge seems to have some pretty solid micro regs.granted there are tons of fish but still a good amount of solid players that can exploit an unbalanced 3B range.imo

think that statement is true on the bigger sites like Pstars but Merge seems to have some pretty solid micro regs.granted there are tons of fish but still a good amount of solid players that can exploit an unbalanced 3B range.imo

Maybe. I'm not really sure why these guys are in the micros then.

but if you don't balance the 3 betting range then won't people fold on merge? it seems not many people are multitabling

you should only balance if your being exploited...lots of people arent balanced so you can exploit them that way...you dont need to be balanced unless shown otherwise....Just something you can take advantage of at the micros from people...ppl at micros are very random with there 3 bets, but very static with there calling ranges..so its easy to find out there hands while 3 betting and there mostly way more air then value hands....you should just be balanced in 3 betting vs a certain player who could or is exploiting you... you shouldnt have static 3 betting range either except as a default...you should be playing every player different...just people at micros arent doing this and have very robotic calling, random 3 betting tendencies which dont really make sense..no reason for what there doing..Almost like 3 betting pre-flop has become a staple in micros....just lots of people dont know how or when to use it, there just doing it because.

thanks for your reply. do you mean you can exploit people by folding if they 3bet only a tighter range? I think I am never getting any action on JJ+, AK, AQ if I don't 3 bet more hands even at the lower stakes. but then it helps to have reads to know who is folding to what post flop. I think the dynamic 3 betting seems to work based on game flow/card flow, but players at the lower stakes are adjusting their calling ranges postflop. I'm trying 3 betting more if I am card dead or I have a tight image
it seems complex since you can try to consider ranges but then not every hand is going to showdown....
it seems that maybe keeping the raise size preflop the same also helps to disguise your range?
I guess I am just 3 betting to get more money in the pot with my big hands and get people to play back at you eventually and make a mistake

u are exploiting them in a way by folding.and not calling light into there tight range...best play by far trying to steal and taking it down post-flop a lot is exploiting these guys on certain flops..you should base your 3 bet range on the player dude...

ex. if someone is raising BTNs light and calling 3 bets a ton...we should 3 bet for value prob can go 99+ KQ+ even lighter sometimes, people will play fit or fold a lot and have a lot of hands we dominate..If someone is raising BTNs light and folds to a ton of 3 bets you can raise QQ+ AK+ and a whole schwack of bluffs...some kind range u feel comfortable stacking off with and folding...I myself would actually call AK a lot here....you can also take fun lines post-flop once you understand a persons range with certain hands..

There is a lot of videos and posts on the interweb about it...Once you understand how it works its pretty cool beans....you can PM me also if you have questions or want to sweat at all...then I can give you my skype


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